[Changes in plasma and whole blood viscosity during starvation (author's transl)]

More than 6000 parameters were collected during a 21-day period of starvation in 51 obese patients aged 17 to 65 years and stored as data bank on a CDC CYBER 74 at the calculating centre of the University of Technology in Vienna. Samples for multiple linear regression were obtained on the basis of various selective criteria. The essential results of this analysis are the depression of plasma viscosity, which correlates positively with the decrease in blood lipids and the reduction of overweight, as well as the unexpected increase in whole blood viscosity. The latter can probably be explained by an altered erythrocytic fluidity due to the metabolic changes which take place during a longer period of starvation.